The impact of employee ambassadorship on job demands ...

Running head: DEMAND AND RESOURCES OF EMPLOYEE AMBASSADORS

Blessing or curse: The impact of employee ambassadorship on job demands

and resources

Master Thesis Business Communication and Digital Media

Tilburg University

Caroline J. Haselhorst

Snr. 2035199; Anr.492503

Supervisor: Joost Verhoeven

2nd Supervisor: Jos Bartels

Date: 10.07.2020

DEMANDS AND RESOURCES OF EMPLOYEE AMBASSADORS

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Abstract

Word-of-mouth has a larger impact on brand awareness and purchase intentions than traditional

advertising strategies and mediums (Colicev, Malshe, Pauwels & O´Connor, 2018). Therefore,

ambassadors became increasingly important for organizations that operate in competitive

markets as they make consumers connect brands with unique values (Mazzei, 2014). The

ambassador role is, among other stakeholders, taken over by employees of an organization that

actively communicate with external stakeholders (Aranguiz, 2018, Wang & Hariandja, 2016).

Prior research has mainly concentrated on the external impact of employee ambassadorship on

stakeholders and organizational outcomes (Smith, Kendall, Knighton & Wright, 2018; Opitz,

Chaudhri & Wang, 2018). However, this study uses the job demands-resources model by Bakker

and Demerouti (2007), to investigate how the voluntary ambassador role influences the well-

being and strain of employees. Therefore, 15 semi-structured interviews with employees from

different German industries were conducted. The findings indicate that employees gain more

resources, such as motivation and self-confidence, from performing the ambassador role than

demands. This in turn, influences their job performance positively since employees apply the

motivation and adapted skills to fulfil their work tasks. Additionally, suggestions for

organizational role support and further research are made. Organizations should mainly focus on

providing employees with enough time and information to take over the ambassador role. Future

studies can concentrate on, for example, on the ambassador role in a different cultural context to

find out more about the cultural impact on the role demands and resources.

Keywords: ambassadorship, Employee advocacy, job demands-resources model, job

performance


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1 Introduction

Due to the diminished effectiveness of traditional advertising media, the role of the brand

ambassador has become increasingly important for organizations in competitive markets (Doyle,

2005). Through active communication, ambassadors aim to improve the relationship with

stakeholders and their perceived image of the organization (Mazzei, 2014). A brand ambassador

can not only be an external stakeholder such as a consumer or a celebrity, but also an employee

that creates word-of-mouth marketing in favor of the organization (Wang & Hariandja, 2016;

Groeger & Buttle, 2014). Especially since employees are often deeply engaged with the

organization (Harris & de Chernatony, 2001) and have internalized the organizational values,

employee ambassadorship can be a significant advantage for an organization and its performance

(Aranguiz, 2018, Wang & Hariandja, 2016). Furthermore, the study of van Zoonen and van den

Meer (2015) demonstrated that employees are perceived as an even more credible source

compared to the organization itself. Because of that, employees receive more communication

responsibility as active communicators in their work environment and beyond that (Andersson,

2019A). Only fulfilling the requirements of a job is not enough anymore, employees are rather

expected to take over additional roles besides the work-tasks (Thomson & Hecker, 2001).

While we know much about how ambassadorship is perceived from the outside (Opitz,

Chaudhri & Wang, 2018), and its benefits for organizations (Heide, Platen, Simonsson &

Falkheimer, 2018), little is known about how exactly ambassadorship impacts employees and

how they manage the role performance (Andersson, 2019B). Due to the current popularity of the

role, organizations need to know at what personal costs the perceived benefits of this role come


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(Doyle, 2005) The ambassador role constitutes new opportunities but also challenges for

employees. This means that, on the one hand, ambassadorship can create valuable resources such

as valuable contacts or the strengthening of self-esteem (Andersson & Ekman, 2009). On the

other hand, because of the number of roles, non-feasible role descriptions and high role

expectations, employees can experience increasing demands (Ragu-Nathan, Tarafdar, Ragu-

Nathan & Tu, 2008). These demands can lead to communication role stress due to a limited

amount of time, energy, and abilities of employees (Sonnentag, 2017). A demand overload

causes a deterioration of the work performance, as it harms the productivity of an employee and

the willingness to invest effort and extra energy in a work task (Rizzo, House & Lirtzman, 1970;

Walsh, Taber & Beehr, 1980). It can even cause long term consequences for the psyche of

employees and restrain them from performing the ambassador role (Bakker, Demerouti, De Boer

& Schaufeli, 2003). For example, the role of brand ambassadorship has recently grown due to

technological innovations and social media platforms that created new ways of communicating

(Botha & Mills, 2012). Sharing information and reaching a huge audience now requires less

effort for organizations (Verhoeven & Madsen, 2019). Nevertheless, social media also induces

the perceived pressure to permanently communicate meaningful content (Lee, Lee & Suh, 2016).

The influence of performing the ambassador role on employees and their work

performance is a largely unexplored part of branding, communication science and public

relations (Smith, Kendall, Knighton & Wright, 2018; Opitz et al., 2018). Most research rather

concentrates on the external impact of ambassadorship on stakeholders and organizational

resources such as organizational reputation or profit (Andersson, 2019B). No research focused

on what benefits, but also costs the ambassador role brings specifically for employees, even


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though ambassadorship evolved into a vital part of internal corporate communication

management (Andersson, 2019B, Zerfass & Viertmann, 2017). Further insights into the

employees’ perspective on the ambassador role are needed to help employees, as well as

managers and organizations, to prevent severe consequences of the role performance such as

exhaustion and stress. The role experience can be improved, and a sustainable ambassador role

can be created when concentrating on detected positive aspects of ambassadorship that empower

employees. This information is also valuable to close the literature gap and identify further topics

of research on communication roles. Therefore, this study examines how brand ambassadorship

influences the job performance of employees in terms of creating job demands and resources.

Also, the motivational reasons for taking over the ambassador role and the organizational support

for employee ambassadors will be explored in greater detail.

RQ: How does the voluntary ambassador role influence the well-being and strain of employees

and how can employees manage the role in a sustainable way?

2 Theoretical framework

In the theoretical framework, the main concepts of the study are introduced. Firstly, the

ambassador role and particularly the employees’ ambassador role is discussed. This is done to

provide a better understanding of the investigated role and the role performance of employees.

After that, the job demand-resources model is explained, which constitutes a suitable model to

investigate the wellbeing and strain of employees (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007).


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2.1 Ambassadorship

In recent years, marketing has become less sales- and product-oriented and more focused

on the customers (Van Trijp & Steenkamp, 2005). Traditional strategies and mediums such as

television or radio turned out to be less effective in approaching the desired target groups (Doyle,

2005). Instead, word-of-mouth, so-called earned media, showed to have a larger impact on brand

awareness and purchase intentions (Colicev, Malshe, Pauwels & O´Connor, 2018). Earned media

describes the communication activities that are not directly performed by the company, but that

are voluntarily performed by stakeholders or so-called ambassadors (Stephen & Galak, 2012).

A clear definition of ambassadorship among communication researchers is not

established yet (Andersson, 2019B). This research defines an ambassador as a stakeholder that

actively contributes to positive word-of-mouth of an organization whereby earning a salary is not

the main driving momentum (Groeger & Buttle, 2014; Smith et al., 2018). An ambassador

identifies strongly with the organization (Devasagayam, 2017), and is proud to share information

about it, which also implies to defend the organization against criticism (Ambroise, Pantin-

Sohier, Valette-Florence & Albert, 2014; Mazzei & Quaratino, 2018). The ambassador role is

especially important for organizations since ambassadors shape the external brand image among

customers and potential new employees (Wang & Hariandja, 2016). Due to ambassadors,

consumers connect brands with unique values that can differentiate organizations from

competitors and can have a positive impact on a company's performance (Santos-Vijande, del

Rio-Lanza, Suarez-Alvarez & Diaz-Martin, 2013). The ambassador role can belong to different

stakeholder groups such as consumers and employees (Rehmet & Dinnie, 2013).


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2.2 Employee ambassadorship

Employees take on the ambassador role more often than before and communicate actively

to external stakeholders (Heide and Simonsson, 2011). Ambassadorship can be described as a

part of employee advocacy. Employee advocacy describes employees' support to increase the

prominence of the organization by spreading information externally (Seiling, 2008). Employees

become advocates when they have internalized the organizational values and these values

become consistent with their personal values (Boukis, Kostopoulos & Katsaridou, 2014; Wallace

& de Chernatony, 2009). Employee advocates share organization-related content that includes

organizational achievements and information about products or services of the organization (Van

Zoonen, Verhoeven & Vliegenthart, 2015; Helm, 2011). They represent the organization while

they communicate and build relationships with other stakeholders through different

communication channels such as social media (Agresta & Bonin, 2011; Dreher, 2014).

Employee ambassadorship can be divided into an informal and formal role. For the informal

ambassador role, the ambassador actions are not considered part of their formal role but as an

extra-role performance that relies on the voluntary intention of employees (Burmann & Zeplin,

2005). A formalized ambassador role, in comparison, includes the direct encouragement or

specification of the organization to perform the role in a professional environment (Al Eslami

Kandlousi, Ali & Abdollahi, 2010).

The advantage of having employees as informal brand ambassadors are the low or non-

existing costs, if the ambassadorship is not seen as a part of the job description and is not

connected with monetary compensation (Podsakoff & McKenzie, 1994). Compared to other

stakeholders, employees can also provide a good understanding of the brand and have


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experiences to share with the external world (Aranguiz, 2018). Moreover, employee advocacy, in

general, has a positive influence on an employee’s performance and the rapport between an

employee and the organization (Ferina, Yuniarsih & Dismann, 2016). The reason for this could

be the fact that it strengthens the identification with the company and provides a source of pride

and self-esteem (Smidts, Pruyn & Van Riel, 2001; Stets & Burke, 2000). Due to the topicality of

the emerging role of employee ambassadorship and the advantages that it brings with it,

employee ambassadorship constitutes an interesting role for the investigation of job demands and

resources.

2.3 Job demands-resources model

The job demands-resources model by Bakker, Demerouti, Nachreiner and Schaufeli

(2001) explains the influences of employees’ environments on their wellbeing and strain and

subsequently on organizational outcomes (Schaufeli & Taris, 2014). The job demands-resources

model is used in organizations as a tool for human resource management (Bakker & Demerouti,

2007). In the academic world, the model is widely acknowledged and used to examine different

occupations or organizations and their impact on an employee's well-being (Abbas & Raja, 2018;

He, Wu, Zhao & Yang, 2019). The model provides, therefore, a suitable tool to investigate the

influence of ambassadorship on employees` wellbeing and strain by looking at the different

psychological processes.

The job demands-resources model explains the influences of employees’ environments

on their wellbeing and strain and subsequently on organizational outcomes (Schaufeli & Taris,

2014). Bakker et al. (2001) defined two categories of psychological processes. One process that

creates motivation and another process that creates strain for the employee as can be seen in


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Figure 1. The processes are stimulated by job demands and job resources. Resources, on the one

hand, influence the well-being and engagement of employees positively. Demands, on the other

hand, influence the strain or burnout of employees positively (Bakker et al., 2001). The two

psychological processes are connected with each other since both, demands and resources,

moderate the effect of each other (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007).

Figure 1 Job demands-resources model by Bakker and Demerouti (2007)

2.3.1 Job demands

Job demands describe the aspects of a job or role that require psychological or physical

effort (Bakker, Demerouti & Verbeke, 2004). These aspects can be emotional effort, cognitive

effort, or physical labor (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001). If employees do not have enough

resources to deal with a demand, a demand can diminish the motivation to work and cause strain

for employees (Bakker et al., 2004). Increased strain can negatively influence the personal and

organizational performance (Bakker, Demerouti, De Boer & Schaufeli, 2003). Besides a

performance decrease, a demand overload can cause exhaustion or serious physical and

psychological long-term harm for the employee (Wright & Bonett, 1997).


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Job demands can be divided into two groups: challenging job stressors and hindrance job

stressors (Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling & Boudreau, 2000). Both types differ in their nature

and in the effect that they can have on the employee and eventually on an employee's work

performance. Therefore, it is important to identify the type of demand to be able to make a

statement about the influence of the demand on an employees’ wellbeing and strain. Based on

the type of demand, different suggestions about how to decrease the specific demand can be

made.

Challenging Job stressors

Challenging job stressors are challenging, but also stimulate the personal and work-

related development of employees (Cavanaugh et al., 2000). A high workload, high

responsibilities or time pressure of ambassadors are considered to be challenging job stressors

(Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001). Besides, requiring energy from employees, these stressors

motivate employees to increase their commitment to their role and help them to acquire new

skills (He, Wu, Zhao & Yang, 2019).

Hindrance job stressors

Hindrance job stressors hinder employees from achieving goals by hindering them to

make use of their abilities and keeps them from performing the task effectively (Ren & Zhang,

2015). These stressors are particularly related to role stress and role ambiguity. Role stress

describes the situation when a difference between the role requirements and the resources or

values of a person occurs (Judge, Thoresen, Bono, & Patton, 2001; Watson, 2008). A problem

with role ambiguity arises when the role requirements are not clearly formulated, and


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information regarding employees’ in- and extra-roles, such as ambassadorship are absent (Van

Vuuren, 2017).

2.3.2 Job resources

Job resources are the aspects of a job or role that support the employee to carry out work

tasks. Job resources let employees experience a higher amount of physical and mental energy

and invest more effort in work tasks even in difficult times (Schaufeli, Salanova, Gonzales-Roma

& Bakker, 2002). This increases the well-being of workers, which influences their productivity

and the organizational outcomes positively (Bakker et al., 2004). On top of that, resources

diminish the influence of job demands on strain and work performance because resources

provide employees with the capability of handling demands (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007).

Job resources can originate from different sources. Therefore, resources are divided into

interpersonal, task-related, organizational, and organization of work-related resources (Bakker &

Demerouti, 2007). The division into different resource categories helps to make a statement

about the specific resources that originate from ambassadorship. Besides that, the categories

enable us to identify how exactly resources influence the work performance of ambassadors.

Interpersonal resources

Interpersonal resources are resources that arise from social relations with stakeholders

such as support and a good working climate (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). These stakeholders

can be friends, family, and colleagues, but also a contact that the ambassador met at a job fair

that has access to valuable knowledge (Elfering, Gerhardt, Grebner & Müller, 2017).


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Task-related resources

Task-related resources describe motivational resources that are directly connected to the

tasks that an employee performs, for instance, task-related feedback or confidence to carry out

the task (Hackman & Oldham, 1980). The identification with the task also plays a significant

role. Ambassadors that identify with the organization and tasks develop task responsibility,

which helps employees to grow personally (Hackman, Oldham, Janson & Purdy, 1975).

Organizational resources

Organizational resources are resources that are created by the organization the employee

is employed at such as job opportunities and salary (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). In the case of

ambassadorship, this can be an additional monetary reimbursement for the extra effort that

employee ambassadors invest in the organizational development (Burmann & Zeplin, 2005).

Resources that relate to the organization of work

Resources that originate from the organization of the work include the responsibility that

is given to the employee and the role clarity (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). Clear instructions and

defined goals can help employees to perform their tasks better and be more satisfied with their

role (Fisher, 2001).

3 Research method

To identify how the voluntary ambassador role influences the well-being and strain of

employees, qualitative interviews with 15 employees were conducted. In the following chapters


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the interview design including structure and content, as well as the characteristics of the sample

and the analysis process are pointed out.

3.1 Interview design

The interview was semi-structured and funnel shaped. It started with broader questions

about the demographics of the interviewees that develop into more specific ones about the

experience of performing the ambassador role as can be seen in the interview guide in Appendix

A. All the interviews were conducted in English. The content and structure of the interview

questions were oriented on the design of the study by van den Berg, Verberg, Berkhout,

Lombarts, Scherpbier, and Jaarsma (2015) that investigates the role of job demands, job

resources and role interaction on the positive well-being of teachers of a medical school.

The first part of the interview consists of predetermined questions about the interviewees´

demographics and filter questions to make sure that the participants are in fact brand

ambassadors and assess what activities this role incorporates. Additionally, the interview guide

contains questions that do not use the ambassador term directly but that examine characteristics

of the role. This is done to guarantee that also brand ambassadors that do not label themselves as

one, were detected. These questions are based on the earlier introduced ambassador definition by

Groeger and Buttle (2014) and Smith et al. (2018). After these questions are answered positively,

open, and more specific questions regarding the execution of the role, the personal motives of

performing the ambassador role and potential benefits are asked.

In the second part, the interviewer focuses on examining the job resources and job

demands that arise from the ambassador role and if they contribute to the work performance of


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an employee. Descriptive questions are asked to explore the employees' motivations for starting

to perform this role. Structural questions are asked to receive a better insight into the relationship

between the ambassador role and the daily working life. Therefore, the critical incidents

technique developed by Flangan (1954) is applied. The critical incidents technique (CIT) was

invented to investigate human behavior in specific situations. The technique simplifies answering

for the interviewees by asking them about concrete situations and events as a brand ambassador.

The technique does not follow a determined structure, but a flexible adaptation of principles to

the situation (Swan & Rao, 1975). Most importantly, the objective description of the situation is

not judged in any way by the interviewer. This leaves the opportunity to receive insights into the

positive and negative aspects of a situation (Flanagan, 1954). Andersson and Nilsson (1964)

proved the validity and reliability of this technique for examining job performances. Moreover,

organizational communication research has applied this technique in the past to find out more

about job performance behaviors to support the right characteristics with certain actions and to

establish changes to improve the behavior (Zwijze-Koning, De Jong & Van Vuuren, 2015). The

questions are based on the definition of job resources and demands by Bakker and Demerouti

(2007). An example of an interview question following the CIT: "Tell me about a situation from

your everyday work where the role helped you to achieve a work goal or simulated your

personal development”. This part is followed by unstructured open questions that are formulated

by the researcher in response to the given answer by the interviewee to gain a better

understanding of the ambassador role.

The last part of the interview consists of questions about the current satisfaction with the

provided role support by the organization and suggestions for improvement that would make it


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easier for the interviewee to perform the role. After that, the participants have the chance to ask

questions concerning the interview, the study, or the ambassador role in general. To test the

interview guide, a pilot interview was conducted. The pilot interview aimed to ensure that the

questions are understandable for the participants and that the questions stimulate the participants

to discuss the ambassador topic in greater detail. In the end, the interviews were conducted by

the author of this study via telephone and took between 11:40 and 33:20 minutes. The reason to

choose phone interviews was because of the global COVID-19 pandemic, as governmental

restrictions interdicted to meet in person.

3.2 The sample

The sample is composed of 15 employees. The author conducted a purposive sampling,

all participants stated that they are currently performing the brand ambassador role (Treadwell,

2016). The recruitment of the sample was done through the social media platforms LinkedIn and

Facebook and personal connections. The participant should have worked at the company for at

least one year to secure organizational identification, which is constituting one of the core

attributes of the ambassador role (Ambroise et al., 2014). One exception was made. The

participant worked in the organization for 7 months, however, she already received the

ambassador title from the organization due to a high engagement in ambassador activities. All

interviewees participated voluntarily and gave their consent verbally after reading the

information letter for participants and informed consent (Appendix B) about the research. The

verbal agreement was audio-recorded and can be found in the interview transcriptions in

Appendix D.


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The characteristics of the sample are listed below in Table 1. All participants had the

German nationality and were living and working at the point of the recording in Germany. The

participants were between 21 and 61 years old. The average age is 48.8 years, which is

approximately 17 years younger than the average German working-age population of 65 years

(OECD Data, 2019). Five of the participants were female, the other ten male. The industries they

work in range from hotel business over the governmental organizations until the car industry.

However, seven of the participants follow a profession in the chemical industry and work in the

same organization. As this organization has over 35.000 employees at this specific site and

several different fields of occupations, they all, besides two of them, work in different

departments of the organization. Not only the industries and professions of the sample differ but

also the tenures. The sample contains employees from the lowest until one of the highest

hierarchical levels, the head of the department. Another notable characteristic is the time of

employment of the participants. The average time of employment at the current organization is

around 16 years. The shortest time of employment is 7 months and the longest 32 years.

Table 1

Overview of participants demographics

Interviewee Gender Age Business Profession Tenure Time of

employment

A Male 21 University Student Assistant, Student

Brand ambassador, Student

Employee

level

2 years

B Male 61 Chemical industry European Site

Management

Senior Vice

president

30 years

C Male 60 Chemical industry Research and

Development Department

Team leader 32 years

D Male 27 Car industry Engineer, development of

car packaging

Employee

level

2 years


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E Male 59 Chemical industry IT department, Cloud

architecture

Manager 30 years

F Male 56 Chemical industry IT department, Cloud

architecture

Team leader 24 years

G Female 52 Chemical industry Real estates and facility

management

Manager 26 years

H Female 25 Startup in the

software industry

Sales department, selling a

software as a service

Employee

level

7 months

I Male 44 Middle authority

between a local

authority district

and the Rhineland

Palatinate

Ministry.

Civil servant Employee

level

7 years

J Male 58 Chemical industry Human resources

department

Head of

department

25 years

K Female 57 Hotel business Human resources and

administration department

Manager 6 years

L Female 49 Governmental

organization

“Energieagentur

Rheinland-Pfalz”

Public Relations,

supporting cities and

communes to reach energy

transition goals

Employee

level

6,5 years

M Male 55 Inner port Civil engineer, Technical

department

Manager 19 years

N Male 42 Chemical industry Marketing Manager for

automotive fluids

Manager 17 years

O Female 52 Bank industry Bank consultant for

companies

Employee

level

10 years

3.3 The analysis

Firstly, all interviews have been audio-recorded, transcribed, and anonymized and can be

found in Appendix D. The ATLAS.ti software was chosen to carry out the qualitative analysis.

Flexible coding was used to assign the answers to the predetermined categories, but also be able

to respond to new, unexpected information and new evolving categories. Flexible coding was

used to assign the answers to the predetermined categories, but also be able to respond to new,

unexpected information and new evolving categories. The codebook can be found in Appendix


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C. The demands and resources of brand ambassadorship were divided into organizational,

resources that relate to the organization of work, interpersonal and task level related resources

and challenging job stressors and hindrance job stressors (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Judge et

al., 2001). Additionally, comments about the improvement of organizational support were coded

to be able to give managers and supervisors advice on how to help their employees to perform

the brand ambassador role in a way that also supports their work attitude.

During the coding process, several new codes were introduced adjusted to the interview

answers. In total, 18 codes were applied. Besides, the already named seven other categories like

channels through which the ambassadors communicate, instructions for the ambassadors by the

organization and ambassador attributes. These categories were chosen to obtain a better

overview and understanding of the motives ambassadors have and activities the ambassadors

perform and to bring these insights afterwards in relation to the identified resources and

demands.


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4 Results

In the following chapter, the results of the semi-structured interview are discussed. First,

the ambassador role of the participants is analyzed to see how deeply the participants are

engaged with the role and what kinds of ambassadorship they perform. Secondly, the mentioned

job demands created by the ambassador role are analyzed. After this, the job resources that were

mentioned in the interview are discussed. This is followed by suggestions for the improvement

of the role support made by the employer and additional insights that have been gathered during

the coding process.

4.1 The ambassador role

Firstly, all the 15 participants indicated that they can be categorized as ambassadors. the

participants felt a strong organizational identification. One of the key indicators that was

mentioned was that the employees were satisfied with their job and their work environment

including the relationships with their colleagues (e.g. "I am part of the family. I feel very much

included”). The participants were overall proud to work for their organization. The answers

indicate that also the success and perceived reputation of the organization influenced the pride of

being one of its employees. Employees that were in a higher hierarchical position even

highlighted that they feel that their decisions have a huge impact on the organization's

performance such as “ ...I can manage a lot of new things, so that I can organize my

organization as I want, fully free.” Therefore, they showed to identify even stronger with the

organization than other employees.


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These employees, as well as employees that work in direct contact with consumers,

indicated to perform a semi-formal ambassador role. The semi-formal role is motivated by the

perceived expectations of other stakeholders but is also motivated by the own desires of an

employee (Biddle, 1986). Participants that inherit a management position explained that they

perceive the ambassadorship as an essential part of their role as a leader (e.g. "But the higher you

go up in the hierarchy the more you have to be a role model and be aware, it is not only the

things you say but also what you express and how the public perceives you”). They also

explained that they perform the ambassador role naturally after being in a management position

for a certain time. To directly discuss organizational expectations regarding the ambassador role

with employees was only discussed by interviewees that work in start-ups or hotel businesses.

This is because these businesses especially rely on good word-of-mouth to create a good

reputation and recruit potential employees (Gilmore & Pine, 2002). In the hospitality business, it

is even contractually forbidden for employees to talk negatively about the business to outsiders.

The reasons for that is that the experiences of the customers also depend on the behaviors of the

employees (Morhart, Herzog & Tomczak, 2009). The other participants stated to perform the

informal ambassador role solely out of their own desire to share positive content about the

organization.

Only a small percentage, especially older employees, were struggling with the definition

of the term ambassador and were informed about the definition that is used in this study (e.g. “ I

am an ambassador of my organization according to the definition, yes. Do I feel like an

ambassador? Not sure”). After that, they confirmed their ambassador role. Most of these

employees had mainly contact with internal colleagues in their job or the term was not


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introduced by their organization. Based on this, it can be said these are unconscious ambassadors

that share their work experiences voluntarily with their close environment that consists of their

friends and family. While they are doing this, they are not aware that they are perceived as

representatives of the organization by others.

4.1.1 People they talk to and communication channels

Every ambassador shared work-related content with their friends and family such as

parents, partners, or children. Participants with a job in a company that offers products or

services directly to consumers or clients, also share their positive work experiences and

opinions about the organization issues with them. For participants that work in a governmental

department or in a business that only does transactions with other businesses, employees from

other organizations, employees, who work in the same field, and suppliers are other outsiders

they communicate with. Employees that work at a higher hierarchical level also reported to

represent their organization in front of politicians and other authorities as a part of their work.

Another type of stakeholder that participants talk to where potential employees or students.

One participant claimed: “I was asked to give some presentations at universities as a kind of

advertising or to find young talents that are going to be hired in the end by my company.”

The participants have mainly face-to-face communication as ambassadors. Besides

answering some questions via email, they rather visit student fairs, scientific congresses or hold

presentations in front of interested high school graduates. However, the current pandemic also

changed the way ambassadors communicate as face-to-face communication is reduced due to the

risk of infection (Wang, Zhou & Lui, 2020). One interviewee explained: “Due to the situation,


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the circumstances that we are finding ourselves in right now, of course, it is a lot more

electronic." Ambassadors use increasingly more email as a communication medium.

Out of the sample, only two participants discovered social media platforms, more

precisely LinkedIn, as a useful channel to get in contact with stakeholders (e.g. " I discovered

that LinkedIn is a huge channel where you can talk about that stuff and I also, for example, did a

post the other day about my job and a lot of people reacted to it”). LinkedIn enables business-

related social networking by providing a platform to communicate, exchange information and

refer to other professionals (LinkedIn, 2007). Older participants stated that they have problems to

deal with social media platforms as they lack knowledge about their usage. Therefore, they do

not use these channels at all (e.g. “But to be honest, I am a guy, who refused using social media

and so on”).

4.1.2 Shared content

The participants mainly shared overall positive content about their organization. A

participant that works in the sales department for a company that sells software as a service

explained that when she talks to outsiders she talks about the positive experience she had with

her organization: “...I try to explain to people what we do and how we can frame value to other

companies and also tell them how much I learn every day and how cool it is to teach and help

others.” Ambassadors also talk about the organization and its general performance based on

economical values. However, the content that they share with business partners and with their

private environment differs. As they feel more obliged to talk positively, when they perform their

job (e.g. “To a business partner surely only positive content as I have the role to represent the

company, so it wouldn't be a good idea to talk negatively about the company...”). Outside their


23

formal employee role they share their own opinion about their job and employers that

sometimes also includes negative experiences (e.g. “ When I talk with my friends and family

about it I tell them also the, how can I say it, the not so nice part because this job can be really

stressful and I am sometimes also really frustrated”). Nevertheless, the negative content that is

shared concerns mainly small issues that occur during a workday and is only shared with friends

and family. One participant explained this followed: “Because as a human you have the natural

tendency to value negative situations in your life way higher and give them way more attention

than the positive ones.” This behavior can also be denoted as emotional coping. Emotional

coping describes the actions of employees to regulate emotions that arose from stressful

situations, for instance by seeking for emotional support (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). This

emotional support is provided by the private contacts when employees share their negative and

stressful experiences with them.

4.2 Job resources

In the following paragraphs, the resources participants obtain from ambassadorship are

analyzed. The interviewees named three of the four resources introduced by Bakker &

Demerouti (2007): Organization-related, task-related, and interpersonal resources. Resources that

are related to the organization of work did not occur, which implies that these resources do not

originate from the ambassador role. Since the organization of work-related resources are

resources that deal with role clarity and the division of the responsibility, these resources are

rather given by managers and supervisors. The other three types of resources were mentioned by

interviewees. First, the organization-related resources are discussed, then the task-related and

lastly, the interpersonal resources.


24

4.2.1 Organization related resources

Of the three resources types that remain, organizational resources were the resources that

appeared the least in the interviews. Organizational resources are the resources employees

receive directly from the organization. One example of this can be monetary compensation.

Nonetheless, only two participants mentioned that they receive a monetary reimbursement

from their organization for their ambassador activities. The employee working in the hospitality

sector explained that successfully recruiting new employees, is rewarded with a monetary

incentive. Student ambassadors receive, besides vouchers, also tangible incentives such as food

and drinks during education fairs and open-day events.

Besides that, the positive attitude and commitment towards the company and the

enthusiasm that ambassadors show when they talk about the organization influences the career

steps employees can make: "That is also good for your career, for everything, for your

development in the company.” Ambassadorship can provide the resources and help to develop

skills that help to achieve career goals, such as important contacts in influential positions. To

show a strong commitment and the willingness to invest additional effort to perform extra-roles,

also catches additional attention from supervisor and human resources managers, as participant J,

head of human resources, revealed. This can be an advantage when it comes to decisions

concerning the promotion of employees since ambassadorship can be a required leadership skill

(Kraut, Pedigo, McKenna & Dunnette, 1989)


25

4.2.2 Interpersonal Resources

Interpersonal resources were the second most often named resources that participants got

out of the ambassador role. These resources can be separated into two sub-categories. The two

categories are networks that bring new insights and feedback and interpersonal connections with

colleagues that improve the working climate.

Participants reported: "...over the years I have established a fantastic network...”. To have

a huge and varied network brings new insights and new information that arises from

interpersonal interaction with different kinds of people. Especially for one participant, who’s

company works on chemical-based solutions to facilitate a better future, to exchange ideas with

outsiders is vital and benefits her and as well as the company as a whole (e.g. "...being in

exchange with society, with young people, with old people, with political groups always helps me

in my job because knowing what people outside the company think..."). But also, family members

and friends can help to acquire another point of view to, for example, solve work-related

problems

The second category concerns the relationship employees have with their co-workers.

Ambassadors are more committed to the organization and communicate that inside the company.

Doing so, they share their positive attitude and enthusiasm with their environment. It emerged

that a work environment with a high number of committed employees, people that are satisfied

with their job and employer, creates a feeling of togetherness and a better work atmosphere.

One participant phrased it as follows: “It makes me feel like being a part of the group of my

colleagues and we think the same things..."


26

4.2.3 Task-related resources

The analysis of the interviews revealed that task-related resources were the resources that

employees perceived the most important consequence of performing the ambassador role. The

most often made statement about task-related resources was that to talk about their job or the

company they are employed at gave them the motivation to finish their daily tasks and work

with more enthusiasm. The motivation and positive feelings, result, firstly, from positive

feedback from others such as customers, friends, or employees from other companies. One

participant claimed: "So I guess it makes me happy and it motivates me, and it also gives me

some self-confidence, I would say." This answer underlines that self-esteem of ambassadors

grows when they receive acknowledging responses (Smidts et al., 2001). Secondly, feedback

regarding work-related tasks that provides employees with an outside point of view and

provides them with new ideas. This feedback does not have to be positive all the time, but

constructive. It helps the employee, especially in times when they have problems to complete

work tasks and look for alternative solutions. Thirdly, an ambassador role can motivate

employees because to share positive aspects of their employer with others let them reflect on the

positive aspects of their job. One participant shared in the interview: "Because if I do so I am

getting aware in that moment of the benefits that I have with my job and that can help me to

motivate myself.”

Another aspect of ambassadorship is that spreading positive content about the

organization and representing a successful organization externally increases their overall

confidence. One participant described it as follows: “I want to work in a company that is positive

and other people see it as positive.” Employees want to be proud of the organization they


27

represent. It also occurred that ambassadors gain confidence when they compare their job and

organization with other organizations or industries (“I talk...to other friends that are working for

other car companies, for example. It is sometimes interesting to hear what they say about their

job…”). To see how their organization performs in comparison to others increases the

confidence level. Since ambassadors see themselves as a part of the organization, they profit

from organizational success (Stets & Burke, 2000). The gained confidence can have a positive

effect on the completion of employees’ work tasks, as well as on how a person interacts with

other people inside and outside the organization (Compete & Postlewaite, 2004).

The interviewed student ambassador stated that he gained during the presentations that

student ambassadors are required to hold in front of large audiences at university events new soft

skills. These soft skills are also important for his performance as a student. The ambassador role

taught him to talk confidently in front of the class and convey information in an interesting and

entertaining manner (e.g. “Also because I do presentations, you present in front of 400 to 500

people. It is always a good experience to do that now so that you are already used to it"). In

addition, the ambassador role and the constant interaction with other people taught the

participant about emotional intelligence and how to build up empathy towards others. These

presentation and communication skills can be applied in other situations such as when employees

have to complete work tasks.

4.3 Demands

From the two previously defined demands, hindrance and challenging job stressors, only

challenging job stressors were detected in the interviews. Hindrance job stressors were not


28

mentioned as a consequence of performing the ambassador role. Compared to the previously

discussed resources, only a small number of job demands were caused by the ambassador role.

4.3.1 Challenging job stressors

Despite hindrance job stressors, challenging job stressors cause stress, but at the same

time challenge the employee to grow personally and teach the employees how to handle difficult

situations (Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001). Only five out of the 15 participants mentioned

challenging job stressors in their interview.

An interviewee that currently holds a manager position, recounted that ambassadorship as

a part of leadership implies to always be a role-model in holding and conveying a positive

attitude towards the company (e.g. “...being something like an ambassador means also for

yourself that you have to be a positive example for all the others...."). This can be tiring, as it

does not allow to show attitudes or behavior that does not align with the ambassador role, but

maybe expresses personal desires. It requires a great amount of self-control. This was also

mentioned by another manager that described the ambassador role as something that one cannot

put down, even if outside of the office. If people recognize somebody as a person that represents

the organization, that person has to act in the interest of the organization even in a private

environment.

Participants, additionally, mentioned stress was caused by a work overload or an

overload of different roles that they were eager to perform at the same time (e.g. “ I am just

making it difficult for myself because I am doing so many things”). The interviewee, who was

entitled as "cultural ambassador" by her organization, described a situation where she was


29

already under stress due to several deadlines when the organization asked her to complete an

additional task related to her ambassador role. This set her under additional stress. She had to

complete the in-role, as well as extra-role tasks, in time (e.g. "And that was where I realized it is

extra work and I have to put more effort in it and I am under so much pressure now. I didn't

really like this ambassador role"). However, they appeared not to harm the work performance of

the employees in the end. The interviewees explained that this happened rarely and that they still

perceived the ambassador role as overall very positive since, in the end, the positive aspects

prevail.

Another source of stress were critical questions and critique from outsiders the

participants were confronted with. Especially since a huge number of the participants work in a

controversial industry, the chemical industry, or the German car industry; this also constitutes a

challenge to ambassadors (Elfering et al., 2019). Besides severe scandals they had to cope with,

ambassadors mentioned organizational changes that achieved attention from the public. Not

always were the employees in complete agreement with the introduced changes (e.g.“Yes, I

understand the decision, maybe some small decision could have been taken differently, but the

decision to outsource was met by the board and we have to implement it”). Nevertheless, due to

the strong identification with the organization, the participants did not describe it as a situation

that influenced their relationship with the organization, their motivation to work or even their

overall work performance. However, in the situation itself, when they experienced an offensive

confrontation, they reported having problems to handle these situations. To defend their

organization in front of the critical counterpart and find a satisfactory solution, causes stress for

them. They described the way they handle these specific situations as follows: "…sometimes


30

when you talk about the emission scandal and then often people talk bad about like all the car

companies and things and you feel like you have to protect your company against that.”

4.4 Suggestions for improvement

At the end of the interview, the participants were asked to name things that their

employer could improve and that would make performing the ambassador easier. Participants

that only perform the ambassador role in their personal environment in front of their friends and

family, did not feel the need of stronger support from their employer (e.g. "They are already

doing a very good job…”). In contrast, participants that perform the role on a more professional

level explained that it took time for them to adapt to the role and to perform it passionately and

confidently. These participants suggested more role support, especially, at the beginning of the

employment such as workshops about role-related topics or to build a network of ambassadors

who share experiences and learn from each other. The human resources manager that

participated in the interview emphasized that employees need to acquire all relevant information

about the organization itself and the products or services a company sells in order to become a

good ambassador. It is also important for employees to receive enough time to internalize all

these information and to be able to perform the ambassador role voluntarily and authentically

(e.g. "...young people that come into the company should have the time to learn a lot about the

company's background… and to feel part of the company so that they get into the role of an

ambassador”).

Employees that perform the ambassador role in a controversial environment requested to

receive more relevant information when a scandal arises or when actions of the organization

cause negative public reactions. One employee explained their situation like that: "...regarding


31

the emission scandal they could give you some input on what you could say if you have

discussions about it. But maybe they don't really want to do it because everybody should speak

the way he thinks.”

Based on this quote it can be concluded that these ambassadors need fact-based and clear

information about the organization's reasons for actions and the role an organization exactly

played in a scandal. Information that judges the situation or that is spread to generate only

favorable attitudes towards the organization, on the contrary, should not be communicated to

employees. They want to make their own judgment regarding the situation and not be influenced

by their employer.

5 Discussion

In this section, the findings of the interviews are discussed and connected to findings and

statements of prior research and theory. The resources and demands are discussed in context of

the work engagement model to examine their eventual influence on the work performance of

employees (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008).

5.1 The work engagement model

The interviews showed that the ambassador role provides employees with resources and

demands that both stimulate the organizational engagement of employees. The identified

resources and demands are interconnected and impact each other. To elaborate in greater detail

on this, the work engagement model developed by Bakker and Demerouti (2008) is applied to

the findings. The work engagement model is a further development of the job demand and

resources model. It assumes that employees create new resources through the performance of


32

extra-roles, such as ambassadorship. These resources in turn increase work engagement. The

impact of the resources is, however, moderated by job demands. If the job demands are high, the

influence of the job resources appears to be even stronger. A high work engagement positively

influences work performance, but also the organizational identification and ambassador

performance. The module can be understood as a positive gain spiral, as a good performance

influences the job resources again positively (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008). An overview of the

model can be seen in Figure 3. The positive gain spiral and the emphasized relatedness of

demands and resources is also supported by the analysis of the interviews. The detected demands

and resources add new insights to the work engagement model as they extend the resources and

demands that are already named in the model.

Figure 2. Work engagemend model by Bakker and Demerouti (2008)


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5.2 Networks

Ambassadors described networks as one of the interpersonal resources they receive. The

input that is provided by external networks can consist of capabilities and resources that cannot

be created internally such as services, goods, financial support or inspiring ideas (Andersson et

al., 2002). Since networks differ individually, they provide an inimitable and unique resource.

Because of this, they can be a valuable asset and competitive advantage for organizations

(Gulati, Nohria & Zaheer, 2000). The findings of this study emphasize that the ambassador role

of employees also strengthens and enlarges employees’ networks. Ambassadors build work-

related, as well as personal networks when they represent their organization externally and

communicate with outsiders. In times of need, they then can refer to these networks and

resources that they provide.

The internal networks within an organization are positively affected by the ambassador

role, as well. Stets and Burke (2000) claimed that to talk positively about one's organization

strengthens the identification with the organization. Through a strong identification, the rapport

between the employee and the organization including co-workers is also positively impacted

(Ferina, Yuniarsih & Dismann, 2016). This is behavior grounded in the social identity theory,

which states that employees identify with an organization to self-categorize themselves with a

social group and create a feeling of belongingness (Hogg, Terry & White, 1995; Turner, Hogg,

Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). Colleagues or other ambassadors are seen as in-group

members and they are automatically judged more positively. Employees also feel a stronger bond

with ingroup members as they identify with the same values etc. (Stets & Burke, 2000). This

means that the feeling of togetherness grows, which results in a better work and communication


34

atmosphere in an organization (Ellemers, Pagliaro, Barreto, 2013; Bartels, Pruyn, de Jong &

Joustra, 2007). A good work atmosphere leads to increased motivation and increased

engagement in work tasks (Gelade & Ivery, 2003).

5.3 Feedback

The task-related and organizational feedback ambassadors receive from the just

mentioned networks can be divided into two different categories. Firstly, a study by Ederer

(2010) found out that, especially positive feedback can have a motivational effect and increase

the productivity of employees. Positive self-reflection or reflection on the company leads to a

higher goal-oriented identification, which increases the commitment and engagement for the

organization’s strategy (Joireman, Parrott & Hammersla, 2002; Luyckx, Soenens, Berzonsky,

Goossens & Vansteenkiste, 2007). Secondly, feedback in general provides employees with an

external view on issues that need to be improved, but also on successful aspects of the business.

Because of this, feedback leads to an evaluation of their current situation as it helps employees to

reflect on their own, as well as the organizations’ performance (Ederer, 2010). This evaluation

can also be described as a sense-making support (Wichmann, Funk & Rummel, 2018). Sense-

making support can be defined as “...the creation and appreciation of meaning..." (De Jaegher &

di Paolo, 2007, p. 488). It can bring new insights and help to create new ideas and problem

solutions to develop the business further (Andersson, Forsgren & Holm, 2002). The two-way

communication between the organization and external stakeholders that ambassadorship enables,

contributes also to shape business ethics further by aligning them to stakeholders responses

(Goodstein & Wicks, 2007). When an organization's actions are perceived as ethically and


35

socially accepted this makes the organization more attractive for employees to identify with

(Greening & Turban, 2000).

5.4 External critique

However, the feedback that the prior described networks provide can also constitute a

threat to ambassadors’ acquired strong organizational identification. The reason for this is that

the feedback is not always constructive and can include external critique, which was named as

one of the challenging jobs stressors by the participants. The critique can be due to either an

organization scandal or the fact that the organization operates in a controversial industry such as

the chemical industry. Organizations that operate in a controversial industry produce products or

offer services that are morally or ethically questionable or constitute a threat to the environment

(Cai, Jo & Pan, 2012). Therefore, it happens more often that employees are confronted with

external critique when the organizational behavior contradicts societal values and ethics

(Woolfson & Beck, 2005). As the participants all show a strong commitment and identification

with their organization, they take action to protect their constitution. According to the social

identity theory as a part of the group or organization, the employees are more likely to perform

actions that create value for the group or organization (Stets & Burke, 2000). In terms of an

external threat, the employee does not feel threatened personally but perceives a threat

concerning the in-group. The employee tries to protect and defend the ingroup to fulfil their

desire of a positive self-view that also depends on the reputation of the ingroup or organization

(Ouwerkerk, de Gilder & de Vries, 2000; Tajfel & Turner, 1989).

An organization can not only show behavior that contradicts with societal values and

ethics, but also with personal values and opinions of the ambassador. This implies that the


36

employee is not satisfied with the actions of their organization in these situations. Nevertheless,

ambassadors want to protect the organizational reputation and their positive self-view and use

arguments they personally do not accord with (Harmon-Jones & Millis, 2019). To resolve the

emerged dissonance, they align their beliefs with their actions (Cooper, 2007). This refers to the

psychological theory of cognitive dissonance, which was introduced by Festinger in 1957. The

phenomenon claims that when people act in a certain way or communicate certain statements

that they do not believe in yet, they tend to resolve this dissonance as it causes discomfort. This

process can cause stress and requires energy that can mentally strain the employee (Festinger,

1957). The concerned employees, however, stated that the critique from outsiders does not

influence their work performance and engagement negatively, but can cause situational stress. A

study by Riketta and Landerer (2005) found that the more severe a scandal of a company is

perceived by employees the more the attitudinal organizational commitment influences the

organizational citizenship behavior. This means the stronger the organizational threat, the

stronger a committed employee will stand up for the organization. Therefore, external critique

can be identified as a moderating demand in the work engagement model, that subsequently

increases the engagement of employees.

To deal better with the demand of external critique the participants suggested to provide

employees with all relevant information to understand the organization's actions and skills to

deal with the situation. Employees would then feel more confident in their argumentation and the

dissonance between organizational arguments and the opinion of the employee can shrink. This

aligns with the findings of the study by Valackiene (2009) that indicates that in a crisis


37

employees fear to be confronted with negative information about their organization. This and the

impact of other negative consequences can be reduced by giving them all relevant information.

5.5 Self-enhancement

Even though ambassadorship requires a strong organizational identification in the first

place, it also strengthens the organizational identification. Another statement of the social

identity theory is that employees identify with a group to reach self-enhancement and, thereby

self-esteem, while belonging to a favourable perceived social group (Stets & Burke, 2000).

When employees act as ambassadors, one of the reasons they identify with an organization is to

be perceived as a part of a successful organization (Smidts, Pruyn & van Riel, 2001). Employees

are proud to be part of this success and this leads to self-enhancement. This means that

employees identify with a company or institution when it has a good perceived reputation to

improve their self-image (Stets & Burke, 2000). To represent a successful organization, to talk

about its positive aspects and to receive commendatory feedback also makes employees proud

and increases their self-esteem. Employees also require new soft skills, when they perform the

ambassador role. These skills include presentation, communication, and networking skills. That

also contributes to self-enhancement. The self-enhancement motivates employees to work even

harder for their group to improve the organizational performance further (Tajfel & Turner,

1989).

The above-discussed presentation and communication skills can help employees to reach

leadership potential and influence their promotion opportunities in an organization positively

(Bozionelos, 2006). To represent the organization externally is defined as one of the main

characteristics of charismatic and human-oriented leadership style (De Vries, Bakker-Pieper &


38

Oostenveld, 2009). Furthermore, employees that show a strong identification and engage in

extra-role behavior such as ambassadorship are more likely to be perceived as more committed

to their career by the employer and to receive career growth opportunities (Weer & Greenhaus,

2020). To be motivated by promotion opportunities and to receive more responsibility by an

organization, again increases the engagement of employees (Karatepe, Beirami, Bouzari &

Safavi, 2014).

5.6 Role overload

On the contrary, the increasing number of different in- and extra-roles that committed

employees perform can lead to perceived role stress (Ragu-Nathan, Tarafdar, Ragu-Nathan &

Tu, 2007). This was not confirmed by all participants of the sample. Solely participants that

perform an official acknowledged ambassador role and that have a higher management position

mentioned stress caused by too many different roles they must perform simultaneously.

Pressured by perceived expectations of others, they feel obliged to fulfill additional tasks next to

their work tasks (Biddle, 1986). This leads to a role overload and time pressure, which can

constitute a threat to the work quality (Nelson & Burke, 2000). Role overload describes

situations where employees experience an overload of responsibilities and expectations caused

by the different roles they perform (Rizzo et al., 1970). The participants of this study mainly

claimed to lack time as a resource to handle the role overload. Therefore, they try to adapt to the

time pressure by adapting new skills that lead to more efficiency such as an effective

organization of their tasks (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). Employees perform these many roles as

they, in the end, receive increasingly more resources than demands from these roles. This

simulates their already high work engagement positively (Van den Berg et al., 2015).


39

5.7 Technostress as a potential demand

The findings of the conducted interviews also illustrate that the ambassador role of

employees is primarily performed face-to-face and not through social media. Prior research

claimed social media as one of the key aspects that influenced the development of

ambassadorship (Botha & Mills, 2012). Therefore, many investigations on the role concentrate

on ambassadors’ activities in an online environment and the positive impact on the

organizational reputation (Smith et al., 2018; Waeraas & Dahle, 2019). Besides the fact that

communication through online channels can improve the performance of the ambassador role, it

can also constitute some challenges (El Ouirdi, El Ouirdi, Segers & Henderickx. 2014). The

usage of technological communication channels can cause technostress (Lee et al., 2016;

Ayyagari, Grover & Purvis, 2011). Employees that experience technostress feel too many

demands placed by the online environment. These demands arise as they are more visible and

approachable in this environment for others (Treem & Leonardi, 2013). This sample consists of

only two participants that actively promote the organization on social media platforms and

technostress occurred not to be a demand for them. However, since many participants were

between 50 and 60 years old, they claimed to not use social media as they are overstrained with

the usage of social media. Technostress can be classified as a hindrance job stressor (Yan, Guo,

Lee & Vogel, 2013). Therefore, technostress can be named as a demand that did not directly

influence the work performance of the sample, but that restrained the performance of the

ambassador role of older participants. Hindrance job stressors have a threatening effect on

employees and influence the organizational commitment negatively (Ren & Zhang, 2015). Since

organizational commitment is one of the key aspects of ambassadorship, this would stop


40

employees from performing the role and they would not appear in the sample of this study

(Bakker & Demerouti, 2007).

6 Conclusion

In the following paragraphs, a conclusion is drawn from the findings of this study and to

answer the previously formulated research question. Furthermore, the contribution of the study is

addressed. After that limitations of the conducted study and suggestions for further research are

formulated. Lastly, implications for organizations and employees concerning the management of

employee ambassadorship are made by the author.

6.1 Conclusion of findings

Based on the analyzed interviews, statements regarding the previous formulated research

question “How does the voluntary ambassador role influence the well-being and strain of

employees and how can employees manage the role in a sustainable way?” can be made. First,

the findings indicated that the ambassador role does influence the resources and demands of

employees and subsequently the job performance. Several resources and demands were

identified. Moreover, it occurred that employees gain more resources from performing the

ambassador role than demands. Due to the high amount of resources that ambassadors receive

they can deal more easily with upcoming demands (Demerouti & Bakker, 2007).

Ambassadorship enhances the engagement, pride, and organizational identification of

employees. This underlines the positive gain spiral of ambassadorship since all three aspects are

prerequisites for employee ambassadorship (Devasagayam, 2017). It also constitutes an

advantage for organizations because dedicated and satisfied employees impact the work


41

atmosphere and overall organizational performance positively (Gelade & Ivery, 2003; Taris &

Schreurs, 2009).

The ambassador role provides employees with task-related, organizational and

interpersonal resources that improve their work performance. Representing an organization with

a good perceived reputation increases the positive self-view and self-esteem of employees

(Carmeli, 2004). That is why self-enhancement appeared to be one of the reasons for employees

to perform the ambassador role. Another resource that motivates ambassadors to perform the role

is to expand their external and internal networks. These networks can provide feedback, new

insights and information from a different point of view to solve problems or to develop new

business ideas.

Only a few demands, more precisely challenging stressors such as role overload and

critical responses from outsiders, were caused by performing the ambassador role. This

particularly concerns semi-formal ambassadorship. Compared to the hindrance job stressors,

these kinds of demands cause situational stress, but also stimulate personal growth (Bakker &

Demerouti, 2007). The challenging characteristics make employees surpass themselves and build

up new skills to handle the situation (Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001). Therefore, the

ambassador role does not harm the work performance of employees but sometimes poses new

challenges for them, for instance such as to work under time pressure. To deal better with the

situation where ambassadors face challenging demands, transparent information from

organizations about current issues are necessary.


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6.2 Relevance

The findings of this study provide new insights on the employees’ perspective of the

ambassador role. It explains how the role creates positive word-of-mouth for organizations, but

at the same time positively influences employees. This study indicates that the role increases the

work performance of the employees when the role is performed voluntarily and out of their own

conviction. However, the findings also emphasize that there are differences between a voluntary

role and a role that is based on the expectations of others, which creates more perceived

demands. It contributes to the existing literature as it supports the findings of previous studies.

The study also draws the connection to psychological research since it applies the job demands-

resources model. Furthermore, it closes the literature gap on how the ambassador role of

employees influences their wellbeing, strain and work performance. Prior research mainly

focused on the factors that influence employee ambassadorship (Tsarenko, Leo & Tse, 2017;

Wallace & Chernatony, 2009). This research in contrast, concentrates on the factors that

employee ambassadorship influences and provides input for further research. The findings

propose how organizations need to approach employee ambassadorship to maximize resources

and minimize demands.

6.3 Limitations

During the process of this research, some limitations emerged that might have influenced

the outcome of this study. Seven participants of the sample were employed at the same

organization, which operates in the chemical industry. Besides that, the sample consisted of

employees from a variety of different industries. Nevertheless, organizations from different

industries have different organizational characteristics based on different industry norms. Every


43

industry has its own organizational culture that includes different rules, procedures and values

(Chatman & Jehn, 1994; Pennings & Gresov, 1986). These differences also influence the

perception of the industry by the public and the ambassador role of employees (Aycan, Kanungo

& Sinha, 1999). Since the chemical industry is classified as a controversial industry,

ambassadors that perform their role in a more critical environment might be over-represented.

Hence, the challenging demand of external critique might be overvalued in the analyzes and does

not apply for all interviewed ambassadors. Based on that, it is more difficult to summarize the

evolving demands and resources from ambassadors out of different industries and draw

conclusions. The results of this study might lack validity and cannot be generalized to all

industries. Albeit, the results of this study give insights into different industries and underline the

influence of industrial characteristics on the ambassador role. It might have been better to solely

concentrate on one industry to be able to make concrete statements about this specific.

Another threat to the validity of the findings is the fact that the interviewees might have

formulated answers more positively and not truthfully to leave a better impression. This could

also explain the underrepresentation of described demands in the interviews. A part of the

questions addressed negative aspects of the ambassador role and employees were asked to talk

about situations where they felt stressed or exhausted. To talk about these specific situations

implies also to share weaknesses with the interviewer. However, for some employees this could

have caused an inner conflict as it contradicts with their urge to represent themselves socially

desirable manner (Nederhof, 1985). According to Richmann, Kiesler, Weisband & Drasgow

(1999), social desirability can bias the answers given in an interview and keep participants from

sharing negative experiences with the interviewer. To be portrayed in a social desirable way,


44

interviewees provide answers that align with social norms or that they perceive as more pleasing

for the interviewer (Krosnick, 1999; Fisher, 1993). Additionally, the sample consisted of

ambassadors whose main characteristic it is to spread positive content about the organization

(Ambroise et al., 2014). It could be possible that the employees also performed the role during

the interviews and, therefore, shared less negative content. Particularly in the interviews with

employees in leading positions, it stood out that they shared mainly positive information about

their organization, even though it was not related to one of the asked questions.

A threat to the reliability of the findings is that the interviews were conducted in English,

which is not the mother language of the interviewed participants. The sample consisted solely of

German speakers. Since most of the participants do not speak English on a daily basis, in some

cases a language barrier could have occurred. This language barrier consisted of two aspects.

Firstly, problems to understand the questions properly, which might have caused a

misunderstanding of the questions. Secondly, to formulate an answer could have posed a

challenge for interviewees. Especially since the topics dealt with work-related issues and the

applied CIT required a description of the emotional state, this interview required an advanced

vocabulary. Research showed that to speak a foreign language can lead to an emotional barrier

that keeps interviewees from explaining and discussing their feelings with the interviewer

(Marcos, 1976). Nevertheless, the CIT worked successfully to stimulate participants to describe

specific situations and to gain a deeper understanding of resources and demands. This partially

weakens the threat of the language barrier concerning the expression of emotional states.


45

6.4 Theoretical implications and suggestions for future research

As the interviewees all worked in organizations based in Germany, the made conclusions

can mainly be applied to German organizations. This is because businesses and their processes

are influenced by the culture they operate in. Business cultures can, for instance, differ in the

way they solve problems and in the way the employees communicate with each other (Hinner,

2009). Therefore, future research can conduct an analysis of resources and demands that the

ambassador role constitutes in a completely different culture. Since the German culture is more

individualistic shaped culture, a study on a more collectivistic orientated culture can bring new

and interesting insights (Schwartz, 2004). This comparison was already investigated by several

other researchers, however, the impact of cultural difference in this specific field of research has

not been studied (Ramesh & Gelfand, 2010; Park, Kim & O´Neill, 2014).

From the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the sample consisted of two

different ambassador categories, semi-formal and informal ambassadorship. These categories

have one thing in common that all roles were mainly performed voluntarily. Future research on

job resources and demands could either concentrate on a formal ambassadorship, that is

performed in a work environment or informal ambassadorship that is performed in the personal

environment of the employee. Additionally, a comparison of the two ambassador types and the

different resources and demands that result of the performance can be made subsequently.

Another focus for future research could be the resources and demands that evolve from

the performance of other extra-roles of employees. Since this study indicates that employees are

indeed impacted by the ambassador role, this could also apply for other extra-roles. This could

be, for example, employees that voluntarily help other colleagues to finish their work tasks (Zhu,


46

2013). By investigating this extra-role of employees, organizations can develop these extra-roles

further and make it more sustainable. Furthermore, organizations can assure that the employees

and the organization benefit from employees that support each other and are not negatively

impacted by it. Therefore, the organization needs to know if helping others causes strain, if it

also influences the wellbeing of the person helping and what kind of organizational support is

required. Since prior research showed that employees perform increasingly more extra-roles,

employees can also use the insights of further studies to decide what extra-roles they concentrate

on and which once to avoid (Thomson & Hecker, 2001).

6.5 Practical Implications

Firstly, the findings of this study suggest that from an organization's perspective to create

passionate and voluntary ambassadors, a strong organizational identification is needed. This can

be reached through a good perceived organizational reputation by the employees as they seek

self-enhancement when they perform the ambassador role. To facilitate this, not only external

reputation management but also internal reputation management is necessary. In order to reach a

strong organizational identification and ambassadorship, information and time are also key

components. Research has demonstrated that the understanding of the brand is an important part

of ambassadorship (Xiong, King & Phieler, 2013). This understanding is needed so that the

employee can align the attitude and behavior of the company, therefore, an organization should

set an emphasis on internal brand management to support the implementation of an ambassador

culture (King & Grace, 2012). This implies that it is not necessary to offer ambassador-related

workshops or training. New employees should be introduced to organizational information about

procedures or products to build a basis for employee ambassadorship. To deliver all this relevant


47

information a good communication behavior and internal transparency have to be established in

an organization (Beech & Crane, 1999). Moreover, the organization should be provided with the

necessary skills that are needed to perform, especially, the formal ambassador role. This includes

presentation skills or other communication skills (Salomonson, Åberg & Allwood, 2012).

Secondly, a high number of employees that perform the ambassador role, cannot solely

impact the organizational reputation, but also the work attitude and performance of employees

(Wang & Hariandja, 2016). When employees perform this role, it leads to a positive gain spiral,

which increases the engagement and work performance of an employee steadily (Bakker &

Demerouti, 2008). The positive gain spiral simulates itself and the created resources can provide

additional networks, insights, skills and motivation for employees. These are valuable, intangible

assets for personal and organizational development that are difficult to obtain. Therefore, they

can be a competitive advantage for businesses (Bounfour, 2003).

Thirdly, organizations can do several things to prevent the negative influence of demands

on employees. The analyzed demands of this study underline that especially ambassadors in

controversial industries need information and insights into the organizational decision-making

process. Ambassadors of these organizations are more involved in critical discussions.

Participants stated that being convinced about organizational decisions and being properly

informed about incidents in crises, helps them to perform the ambassador role in such situations

and to prevent stress. Therefore, organizations should report decision-making processes and

crisis-related information transparently with their employees. This does not include to force

employees to communicate specific messages to the public but to include engaged and

committed employees. For controversial organizations, as well as organizations from other


48

industries, passionate and confident brand ambassadors can be a helpful resource to improve the

external reputation or overcome scandals (Andersson & Ekman, 2009).

Additionally, managers, as well as employees themselves, should overlook the additional

roles employees take over besides their in-role tasks. This way, they can prevent a role overload

that can cause stress and deficient role performance. Managers can address the issue at personal

meetings and stimulate employee ambassadors to freely speak about their perceived strain due to

work overload. More importantly, they also should provide support when needed. Employees, in

turn, should communicate openly about perceived strain and solutions that make it easier to

perform the different roles they have including the ambassador role.


49

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Appendix A

Interview Guide

Introduction

Thank you for participating in the interview.

1. First of all, how old are you?

2. Can you tell me what kind of work you do?

3. For how long are you already employed at your current organization?

4. To what extent do you feel like a part of the organization?

5. Do you ever talk to outsiders about your organization or your job?

6. Through which channels do you talk about the organization?

7. To what extent do you feel like an ambassador of your organization?

8. To what extent do others see yourself as an ambassador?

Demands and resources of ambassadorship

9. Why do you perform the ambassador role?

10. How does it make you feel to perform this role?

11. What kinds of benefits do you get from performing the role?


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12. What kind of incentives do you get for performing this role from your employer?

13. How does the role influence your everyday working life?

14. Tell me about a situation from your everyday work where the role helped you to achieve

work goals and stimulated your personal development.

15. Tell me about a situation where it helped you to overcome stress and/or exhaustion in

demanding time at work.

16. Tell me about a situation from your everyday work where the role required sustained

physical and/or psychological effort.

17. Tell me about a situation where the role was creating strain and exhaustion in your work

life.

18. Overall is your ambassador role positive or negative?

19. Which suggestions of improvement regarding the role support do you have for your

organization?

End

20. Do you have any further questions regarding this interview? If yes, you have now time to

ask them.

Thanks for answering all my questions, if you are interested, I can send you the final result of

this study!


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Appendix B

Information letter and informed consent

Information letter “Blessing or curse: The impact of employee ambassadorship on job

resources and demands”

Dear participant,

First of all, thank you very much for participating in this interview as a part of my master thesis.

The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of employee ambassadorship on their

job resources and demands. The interview will investigate if the ambassador role creates job

resources that help employees to fulfill their tasks and/or job demands that harm employees to

fulfill these tasks. With your participation in this study you help to gain further insights into the

impact on the employees´ perspective and to prevent negative consequences of the role

performance and to improve the role experience in the future.

The interview will take around 45mminutes and contains 20 predetermined questions, followed

by some follow up questions to investigate the answers in greater detail. Furthermore, the

interview will be audio recorded and transcribed. You have the right at any time to request

access to the interview recordings and transcription. All data and documents regarding this

interview will be stored on my personal TiU work environment and deleted after finishing this

research project on the 5th of June 2020.


71

Your participation is completely voluntary, and you can withdraw at any point during the

interview, for any reason, and without any prejudice. Your answers are completely anonymous,

we only ask for your gender, age and your current job.

This study has been approved by the Research Ethics and Data Management Committee (REDC)

of Tilburg University. In case of questions or further suggestions feel free to contact the

researcher via the following email address: [email protected]. If you have any

remarks or complaints regarding this research, you may also contact the Research Ethics and

Data Management Committee of TSHD via [email protected].

Kind regards,

Caroline Haselhorst

Informed Consent “Blessing or curse: The impact of employee ambassadorship on job

resources and demands”

Your participation is completely voluntary, and you can withdraw at any point during the

interview, for any reason, and without any prejudice. Your answers are completely anonymous,

we only ask for your gender, age and your current job.

The interview will be audio recorded and transcribed. You have the right at any time to request

access to the interview recordings and transcription. All data and documents regarding this

interview will be stored on my personal TiU work environment and deleted after finishing this

research project on the 5th of June 2020.

STATEMENT BY PERSON AGREEING TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS STUDY:


72

I have read this informed consent document and the participants information letter, and I fully

understand the material. There was also the opportunity to ask questions in case of uncertainties.

I freely and voluntarily choose to participate in this interview and agree that the interview is

being audio recorded. Furthermore, I agree to the further processing of the data and that the data

can be stored until the end of the study, 5th of June.

I agree to all of this by giving verbal consent in the beginning of the recorded interview.


73

Appendix C

Codebook

Table 1

Codebook

# Code Definition of the code Example Example from the

conducted interviews

1 Challenging job

stressors

Challenging job stressors are

challenging demands of employees

that at the same time they also

stimulate the personal and work-

related development of employees.

A high workload, high

responsibilities or time

pressure are, for instance,

challenging job stressors.

"...I am just making it

difficult for myself

because I am doing

so many things. "

2 Hindrance job

stressors

Hindrance job stressors embarrass

employees from achieving goals or

to complete work tasks by hindering

them to make use of their abilities.

These stressors are related to role-

related stress and role ambiguity.

An example for this type of

stressors can be an unclear

defined ambassador role by

the employer, so that the

employee does not know

what is expected of him/her.

3 Interpersonal

resources

Interpersonal job resources are

resources that arise from social

relations with stakeholders such as

family friends, colleagues or

business partners.

These resources can be

networks that for example

can provide specific

knowledge or general

feedback.

"...over the years I

have established a

fantastic network."

4 Task-related

resources

Task-related resources describe

resources that are connected to the

tasks that employees perform, for

instance, feedback or confidence to

carry out the task. These resources

help employees to fulfill their tasks.

Task related resources can

be also skills that employees

gain from the ambassador

role such as presentation and

communication skills.

"...I think it is more

pushing me to work."

5 Organizational

resources

Organizational resources are

resources that origin from the

organization the employee is

employed at.

These resources can be

monetary reimbursements,

bonuses or job opportunities

"That is also good for

your career, for

everything, for your

development in the

company."

6 Resources that relate

to the organization

of work

Resources that originate from the

organization of the work implicate

the responsibility that is given to the

employee and the role clarity

An example for this kind of

resource can be more

responsibility that an

employee receives for a task

or good and clear task

instructions.


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7 Improvement of

organizational

support

Improvement for organizational

support describes all statements of

employees that contain suggestions

for the organizational role support of

ambassadorship

These statements can be

about the need of more skill-

related workshops as for

example presentation and

communication workshops

"...young people that

come into the

company should have

the time to learn a lot

about the company's

background and so

on and to feel part of

the company so that

they get into the role

of an ambassador."

8 Types of people they

talk to

This code includes all people the

employees talk to in their

ambassador role, all people they

share positive content about their

organization with.

An example can be family

members, friends or

business partners.

"When I talk outside

the organization it is

to my friends, to my

family members.."

9 Content they share Content they share describes all the

content and topics about the

organization or their job

ambassadors share with outsiders.

This can be content about

the organization's

performance or about

advantages of being

employed at the

organization.

"Sometimes I also

talk about general

economic aspects

concerning the

company I am

working for, so the

future, how profitable

it will be, how safe

the job that I have in

this company. "

10 Channels through

which the

ambassadors

communicate

Channels through, which

ambassadors communicate are

considered as communication

channels, if electronic or face-to-

face, through that ambassadors share

content with outsiders.

These communication

channels can be email,

LinkedIn, but also the

telephone.

"So mostly we do

face to face."

11 Incentives from the

employer

Incentives from the employer

describe all incentives, that are not

related to monetary reimbursement,

that an employee receives for

performing the ambassador role.

An incentive can be

appreciation or also free

lunch and drinks for

ambassadors.

"And they also supply

us with quality lunch

and everything

during our events."

12 Instructions for

ambassadors from

the organization

Instructions for ambassadors from

the organization include all

regulation and rules that employers

formulated for ambassadors about

how they have to behave or what

kind of content they are allowed to

share.

These instructions can be

that ambassadors are only

allowed to share positive

content and they shouldn't

discuss scandals of the

organizations with outsiders

"So if we are missing

information we are

supposed to not

answer questions

and maybe redirect

them to another

person who can

answer the question."

13 Ambassador

attributes

Ambassador attributes describe all

characteristics of an ambassador that

are named in the definition of

ambassadorship: a stakeholder that

actively contributes to positive

word-of-mouth of an organization or

an organization's product whereby

earning a salary is not the main

driving momentum. Furthermore,

These attributes can be the

strong identification with the

organization or being

inspired to share positive

content about the

organization to friends for

example.

"...I am 100% behind

the product and the

company, which was

also one of my key

points to start there."


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ambassadors identify strongly with

their organization.

14 Type of

ambassadorship-

informal

The type of ambassadorship refers to

informal ambassadorship. An

informal ambassador performs the

role without being encouraged from

outsiders, voluntarily and out of

their own desire as a private person.

An employee that performs

the role as a private person

when for example talking to

friends or sharing positive

content about the

organization on their

personal social media.

"...the job is part of

my life and so is part

of my communication

with relatives and

friends..."

15 Type of

ambassadorship-

formal

This type of ambassadorship refers

to the formal ambassadorship. A

formalized ambassador role includes

the direct encouragement or

specification of the organization to

perform the role in a professional

environment.

Employees that perform the

ambassador role as part of a

job or given role.

"I also work as a

student ambassador

for the university..."

16 Employees’

perception of the

ambassador role

Employees’ perception of the

ambassador role can be defined as

the positive or negative perception

of performing the ambassador role.

Employees can say that to

perform the ambassador is

clearly positive for them or

would claim that they

perceive also as a burden

sometimes.

"Positive! Definitely

positive! It has only

advantages for me,

really."

17 Things that make

employees identify

with an organization

Things that make employees identify

with an organization includes all

factors that employees name that

made them feel stronger connected

with an organization.

An example for this can be

shared values with an

organization or a good

reputation of the

organization that makes it

more attractive for the

employee.

"I can do a lot of

things free on my

own."

18 Additional insights Additional insights includes all

information that ambassadors

mentioned that were not directly

related to the research question, but

also provide interesting insights in

employee ambassadorship

An additional insight could

be the fact that

ambassadorship becomes

more important for the

organization of the

employee since a lot of old

employees will leave the

organization soon.

"I think you have to

be the type of person

to be an ambassador.

I like to be with

people and you can

only do a good

ambassador role if

you are a likeable

person and if you like

people. If you don't

like people you

cannot do that role."

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